The newest weapon in the battle for your money – free booze!

by Scott Carmichael on

The battle for your summer airfare dollars is getting ugly (for the airlines). For years, Qantas has been the only carrier to offer unlimited free booze on the Los Angeles – Sydney route (at least since all US airlines removed that perk).

But now, Delta airlines has decided that booze may be just what passengers need to pick them over any other carrier.

The airline will offer passengers in coach free Amstel, Heineken and wine, so fans of hard liquor and cocktails won’t be too impressed with the offer.

Thanks to a massive fare war, passengers can head down under for as little as $320 (each way) , which is about the lowest it has ever been. After taxes and other surcharges, you can snag a ticket (on V Australia) for just $741 R/T.

Whether free booze will have passengers pick Delta over other carriers still has to be seen, but I’m sure there are some people out there who’ll be able to drink $50 worth of free beer on their long flight.

So, lets have a little poll here – if airline fares are the same, would you pick one airline over another if they offer free booze?

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Is encouraging alcohol consumption on planes a good idea? Click the images below to read stories of booze gone bad in the skies.

Trax metacrawler launches with First Class Frenzy upgrade game

by Grant Martin on

The newest metacrawler in town, Trax, is wooing users with added incentive to abandon their old Kayaking ways: upgrades. The travel search engine, which is undoubtedly scrapping for market share, just launched First Class Frenzy, an online trivia game where you can answer a host of questions and virtually “move up to first class.” Winners of the online game will be entered in a drawing to win an upgrade on their next flight.

“What sort of upgrade” you ask? According to Trax knower of things Ani Custer, winners will receive one, one way, domestic upgrade good for a year on a major US carrier. One winner will be selected every month, starting on July 16th. Fair enough. If you’re not traveling on the carrier that Trax selects, you can always give away the certificate.

As far as how Trax performs as a search engine, the site has real promise. I just ran a comparison search from DTW – CDG for a week in July and Trax found a fare $75 lower (via vayama.com) than Kayak did. I’ll be sure to include it in my battery of engines next time I run a real search.

Virgin Blue calls musician terrorist

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It wasn’t until Steve Lucas actually got on the plane that he had a problem. His bullet-studded guitar strap – empty shells, of course – made it through the various points in the Sydney airport’s security gauntlet. Consequently, all his luggage was removed from the Virgin Blue flight.

Three times, the musician of 30 years was called to the front of the plane to sign a statement confirming that he had brought prohibited goods aboard. Lucas claims not to have had any problems with the shells on previous flights while on tour.

Separated from his instruments, Lucas was unable to rehearse in a timely manner, prompting him to call the airline’s complaints line … where he was told he was a potential terrorist.

Mom may have said that rock music will rot your brain, but this is extreme.


Unlike Lucas, these girls were actually *causing* problems in the sky. Click the pictures to find out what they did.

Photo of the Day (6.16.09)

by Grant Martin on

Today’s Photo of the Day is relevant for several reasons. The shot of the tarmac on the way to Paris was taken by Kent Wien, our resident pilot who is actually currently on layover in the middle of a BOS-CDG-BOS turn.

This week is also the week of the 45th Paris Air Show, the massive biannual event that brings thousands of suppliers, manufacturers and press to Le Bourget for updates on all of the new technology. It’s the biggest air show in the world, and both Kent and Grant will running around collecting data for Gadling. Stay tuned later this week for updates from the show.

Oh, and if you’ve got any cool photos that you’d like to share with the world, add them to the Gadling Pool on Flickr and it might be chosen as our Photo of the Day. Make sure you save them under Creative Commons though, otherwise we can’t use them!

The Paris Air Show begins

by Grant Martin on

The Paris Air Show begins today, in what promises to be a week full of excitement and events in Le Bourget, Paris. Along with the Dubai and Farnborough air shows, the Paris exposition is among the largest in the world, bringing in dislpays, press and tourists from all over the planet.

This isn’t your normal Kalamazoo airshow with the Blue Angels and a couple of helicopters, either. Scheduled only once every two years, the Paris Air Show brings all of the manufacturers, suppliers and buyers to the table, showing off their newest wares (787 interiors, A350 plans etc,) giving demonstration flights and wooing customers.

Highlights this year include the Russian made Sukhoi Superjet, Boeing’s 777-346ER and the fancy new Airbus 380 as well as a wide variety of historical aircraft including the Bleriot XI and the P51 Mustang. You can see an entire list of aircraft at the exposition website.

The best part is that Gadling is going to be on site documenting the air show this year, bringing you updates from the show and tons of pictures of the events and demonstrations. See an airplane in the list above that you want a better look at? Let us know and we’ll stop by and take some photos for you.

Stay tuned all week for updates from the Paris Air Show!